Red Sox Beat: Outburst rubs out mistakes in 9-4 win over Astros

A three-run deficit after five innings to the team with the third-worst record in baseball ultimately became a runaway 9-4 win.

By Eric AvidonDaily News staff

BOSTON — The Red Sox looked pretty poor in the early innings Thursday night against a pretty poor team.

But as the moments ticked by the runs they’d allowed, the costly error they’d committed, the missed opportunities to score all dissipated as they sent 12 batters to the plate and erupted for seven runs in the sixth inning.

Playing the lowly Astros will do that, make bad things eventually meaningless footnotes.

So a three-run deficit after five innings to the team with the third-worst record in baseball ultimately became a runaway 9-4 win.

"We came to life (in the sixth)," said manager John Farrell. "We were able to combine some base on balls with some base hits. It seemed like we got a couple of pitches up on the plate from (Scott) Feldman, which the first time or two through the order he kept us in check.

"Good to see us break out. A very good offensive night overall."

Feldman (6-9), Houston’s starter, breezed through the Red Sox lineup the first time through, retiring the first eight batters he faced and needing just 37 pitches to get through three innings.

But the Red Sox hit him harder the second time around, then demolished him the third.

With the Red Sox down 4-1, Brock Holt led off the bottom of the sixth with a hustling double to right-center field. Holt moved to third on a single by Dustin Pedroia, and scored on a single by David Ortiz.

Yoenis Cespedes then grounded into a fielder’s choice with Ortiz out at second, but Mike Napoli followed with a single to drive in Pedroia and cut the Red Sox’ deficit to 4-3. Daniel Nava walked to load the bases, and Will Middlebrooks singled to drive in Cespedes and even the score.

That was all for Feldman, who was replaced by Darrin Downs.

But Downs walked Jackie Bradley Jr. — the first walk he’s drawn since July 24 — to force in Napoli. Christian Vazquez then hit a sacrifice fly to score Nava, giving the Red Sox a 6-4 lead.

Holt, up for the second time in the inning, walked to load the bases for Pedroia.

With Michael Foltynewicz summoned from the Houston bullpen, Pedroia poked a ground-rule double that kicked up chalk on the right-field line, scoring Middlebrooks and Bradley.

The inning finally ended when Ortiz grounded out, but a 4-1 deficit was now an 8-4 lead, and Fenway was raucous in a way it’s rarely been this season.

"Feldman was hitting his spots early, mixing and matching with his sinker, his cutter, his curveball, throwing a couple of changeups," said Nava. "I think we were able to work some counts and just grind him out and eventually things started to fall our way."

While the Red Sox made a lousy start disappear, a lot of that lousy start was courtesy of Allen Webster (3-1).

Coming off his first quality start of the season, and just the third in his 10 career starts, he set the Astros down on 10 pitches in the first. But then he walked the first two batters in the second, and when Napoli misplayed a hard grounder off the bat of Jon Singleton, Houston took a 1-0 lead.

Webster surrendered a leadoff double to Marwin Gonzalez the next inning, and Gonzalez scored on a single by Robbie Grossman. The following inning Webster again walked the leadoff batter, and when Matt Dominguez homered it was a 4-0 Houston lead.

Webster lasted six innings, with the leadoff hitter reaching in four of them and scoring three times. Thanks to the error, Webster only gave up three earned runs, so though his start had plenty of poor quality it was, technically, a quality start.

He gave up four runs — three earned — on five hits in six innings, walked three and struck out two.

But his troubles early in innings, and what seemed like a costly error by Napoli, were footnotes by the end of the bottom of the sixth.

"I grinded through it until the sixth and then they took off scoring," said Webster. "When you get seven runs you can’t complain about that at all."

He added, "I had a few innings that when the lefties came up I started pushing the ball again, not staying with my mechanics, but (Vazquez) came out and talked to me and I kind of got back in it."

Alex Wilson pitched a scoreless seventh, aided by a perfect throw from Nava in right field to cut down Jake Marisnick trying to score from third on a flyout. Junichi Tazawa worked around a one-out walk in the eighth, and Craig Breslow closed out the win.

Pedroia, who singled to lead off the fourth, scored the first Red Sox run when Cespedes grounded into a double play. Bradley, who singled to lead off the eighth, scored the ninth Red Sox run on a single by Holt.

"To come from behind," said Farrell, "it was a good win."

Eric Avidon can be reached at 508-626-3809 or eavidon@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericavidon.

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